A blog dedicated to carrying on the work of Gary Welsh's Advance Indiana by continuing the fight for the Republican Principles of limited government, free speech, advocate for good government, rule of law, civil liberties, and opposing cults. We oppose the Church of Scientology. Send any requests, news tips, or gossip. Email: 6vwts@notsharingmy.info. Use the Contact Form on the right side of the screen. Follow on Twitter: @IndyRepublicanX
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Monday, June 19, 2017
"Taxman" Governor Eric Holcomb AKA Mitch Daniels Lapdog!
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Cover up at the BMV?
A supervisor at the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles and her son — also a BMV employee — have been fired after an internal fraud investigation.
But the BMV is releasing few details about the firings, rekindling concerns about openness at an agency that has overcharged customers, grappled with an ethics scandal and faced questions about politically motivated hirings.
Stacy Cox, the accounting supervisor at BMV's headquarters in Indianapolis, was terminated on March 21 for providing false information during an investigation by the agency's Fraud and Security Enforcement division.
Apparently if the BMV is to be believed lying during an investigation runs in the family. Since Cook goes onto say:
Her son, Richard Cody Pringle, who also worked at the central office as a driver's license printer, was terminated two weeks later for the same reason.
The fraud investigation was prompted by the employees' personal vehicle transactions, including allegations of the employees submitting false monetary amounts paid for those vehicles, according to Ashley Hungate, a spokeswoman for the state personnel department.
In phone interviews, Cox and Pringle defended their actions as oversights rather than deliberate misconduct.
IndyStar requested a copy of the fraud investigation reports, but the BMV refused to provide them. citing exemptions to the state's public records law regarding personnel matters.
Such reports, however, are typically released when they involve non-employees.
Government watchdogs say the agency's decision to withhold reports involving BMV employees is concerning, especially since employees fired after fraud investigations have landed sensitive jobs with BMV contractors in the past.
Sarah Bonick, a spokeswoman for the BMV, said the agency must strike a balance between employee privacy and transparency.
Cox told IndyStar the investigation began when she bought a vehicle from an Eastside junkyard, Barlow's Used Auto Parts, where her brother worked.
The vehicle turned out to be stolen. She said she was unaware that the vehicle was stolen when she bought it.
BMV investigators later found she had titled a box truck five years earlier in her name and listed the purchase price as $0, even though her then-boyfriend had paid for it, she said.
The BMV takes such indiscretions seriously because they can muddy the vehicle's ownership history and allow the new owner to avoid title costs, which include a 7 percent sales tax based on the purchase price listed on the title.
Pringle said BMV investigators questioned him about several vehicles he bought or sold, including a pickup truck he purchased from the owner of Barlow's, where his uncle worked.
"They accused me of lying about how much I paid for it," Pringle said. "I can't remember the amounts."
He then sold that vehicle for $500 and "some handguns," he said, but only listed the $500 cash on the title work. He later told BMV investigators that there was only one handgun involved in the exchange, though in reality there were "three or four," he said.
"It was none of their business how many guns I traded for," he said.
In another case, he purchased a vehicle for $2,000 from a friend, but paid only $100 in cash and agreed to work off the remaining $1,900 at his friend's shop, he said. So he listed $100 on the title work.
While the terminations may be justified, advocates of open government said the BMV should be more transparent about such situations.
"As a citizen, I am always concerned when a government agency fails to be transparent regarding offenses or violations that occur at the hands of its employees," said Zachary Baiel, president of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government. "Without access to this information, the public cannot be assured the necessary accountability has been met."
Julia Vaughn, public policy director for Common Cause Indiana, shared her concerns.
"While keeping these records under wraps serves their immediate interest of avoiding public scrutiny about what happened here, in the long-term it’s just another reason for the public not to have faith in this agency," she said. "All I can think is there is information embarrassing to someone at a higher level who is still at the BMV."
IndyStar reported in 2015 that at least three fired BMV employees were later hired by a BMV contractor, where they continued to have access to sensitive information stored on BMV terminals.
Two of the employees had been fired after a fraud investigation; the other was terminated for poor performance that supervisors said opened up the agency to potential fraud.
As in this latest case, the BMV declined to release any of the FSE investigation reports related to those employees.
Bonick said the BMV now has safeguards to ensure that fired employees don't end up working in similar positions for outside contractors.
"All potential employees who will have access to BMV terminals or our transaction system while working for a contractor are vetted through the State Personnel Department and also the BMV’s Fraud and Security Enforcement Department," she said in an email. "Any former State of Indiana employee, not just those who previously worked for the BMV, who have been flagged as Not Eligible For Rehire are not approved."
The firings come after several turbulent years for the agency. Since 2013, the BMV has admitted to overcharging Hoosier motorists about $90 million in taxes and fees. Those overcharges have since been refunded, but one of two class-action lawsuits over the fees remains unresolved.
Any IndyStar investigation in 2015 found that top BMV officials knew for years they were likely gouging Hoosier motorists with excessive fees, but chose to ignore or cover up the overcharges rather than refund the extra money and adjust to significant budget losses.
The financial mismanagement raised serious questions about the qualifications of several top BMV officials and the role that political connections played in their hiring.
IndyStar also found that Shawn Walters, the agency's former chief of staff, encouraged the use of a new fee, then went to work for a private vendor that benefited from it.
The series of controversies led then-Gov. Mike Pence to shake up BMV leadership and cancel the state's contract with the controversial outside vendor. The state ethics commission later fined Walters $500 for violating state ethics rules — an amount that government accountability experts criticized as too low.
The BMV has since worked with lawmakers to streamline the state's complicated system of fees.
Well we can all see why Holcomb didn't have a problem vetoing the controversial public records search fee bill. It is because he knows his lapdogs throughout state government will refuse to release records by claiming they relate to "personnel matters". As for BMV spokeswoman Sarah Bonick's stating they have to balance employee privacy with transparency. We ask: "Ms. Bonick how is that applicable in this case?" Cox and Pringle are no longer employed by the BMV. So how can the BMV say that by keeping their fraud investigation reports secret you are protecting employee privacy? Especially since reports are usually released when non-employees are involved? Even conceding that somehow the agency is interested in protecting Cox and Pringle's privacy. Cox and Pringle have given interviews to the Indianapolis Star. So obviously they are not concerned about their own privacy. So there is no reason for the BMV not to release the information.
Last June we blogged about several BMV scandals and gave links to Gary Welsh, Paul Ogden and Charlie White's chronicling of all the BMV stupidity. IR must confess that Julia Vaughn's saying "All I can think is there is information embarrassing to someone at a higher level who is still at the BMV." Has all of us thinking this is more likely than not the reason for the BMV's being so reluctant to release the information in this case. But if so who at the BMV stands to be embarrassed by this and why? For the record IR is not saying that this is anything other than a simple fraud investigation. That we don't know. But given the BMV's troubled history. Our natural inclination is to assume a cover up. Unless we are given reason to believe otherwise. If you have any information, rumors or tips. Please leave a comment at the end of this post. Or on the web version of this blog fill out the contact form and submit it.
From all of us here at IR we wish you all a good rest of the week. And remember stay positive.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Indy Republican Joins the Call to Defeat Blasphemous Bill to End Access to Public Records!
Kaitlin Lange of the Evansville Courier & Press wrote an article yesterday detailing this issue. Ms. Lange gives information on the bill's present state and gives statements from supporters and opponents of the bill here:
Gov. Eric Holcomb will decide the fate of legislation that would allow units of government to charge up to $20 an hour to citizens and media representatives seeking public records.
The House on Tuesday voted 63-27 to send House Bill 1523 to the governor. It would allow the hourly charge to kick in for a records search requiring more than two hours of work. The bill previously cleared the Senate on a 44-3 vote.
Bill author Rep. Kathy Richardson, R-Noblesville, said 27 other states and the federal government already allow such fees.
Well Kathy a lot of elevator's play Kenny G music! That doesn't make it right! IR already has a low enough opinion of this bill! Couldn't you at least have come up with a better argument than to say "Well everybody else is doing this!"
Lange continues:
Former Gov. Mike Pence vetoed a similar measure two years ago, saying "the cost of public records should never be a barrier to the public’s right to know."
The governor has the option of vetoing the bill, signing it into law or allowing it to become law without his signature.
Those opposed to the bill say that people already pay taxes and should not have to pay again to get access to public records.
“It’s the taxpayer’s property," argued Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington.
The Indiana Coalition for Open Government and Indiana Pro Society of Professional Journalists also issued statements against the legislation, saying it could make it “cost prohibitive” for both journalists and concerned citizens to find out how their tax money is being spent and hold elected officials accountable.
“Government employees could deliberately drag their feet on such requests, racking up exorbitant charges to produce records the taxpaying public already paid for in the first place, either to shut down requests or deter them in the future,” SPJ said in a statement.
Those in support of the bill said fulfilling the large amount of records requests that are filed can be time consuming for public agencies.
Rep. Karen Englemen, R-Corydon, said she saw this firsthand as former Harrison County auditor.
“Some people come in and ask for hours and hours of research to be done,” Engleman said. “We don’t get paid anything for doing that.”
The legislation heads to the governor a month after Indiana was ranked the No. 1 state for budget transparency and government administration.
Mike Pence's decision to veto this bills dad two years ago is probably the only good decision that he made while he was Governor. We agree completely with State Rep Matt Pierce-D when he states that public records are taxpayers property and hence we should not be charged a fee to examine our own property. You go Matt Pierce! We were so impressed by the Indiana Coalition for Open Government and the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists strong support for freedom of information that we have added them to our list of Pro-Freedom Sites! They are right on when they say: “Government employees could deliberately drag their feet on such requests, racking up exorbitant charges to produce records the taxpaying public already paid for in the first place, either to shut down requests or deter them in the future.” We have news for all of you government employees in this state already drag their feet on public records requests. The biggest problem with this bill is that we would then be paying them more to screw us over!
Fake Republican State Rep Karen Engleman's statement that based off her experiences as Harrison County Auditor gives her lame ass excuse to make taxpayers take it up the rear is laughable. Engleman says: “Some people come in and ask for hours and hours of research to be done,” “We don’t get paid anything for doing that.” So what in the hell are you paid to do then? We know that it is a major annoyance for you and your soulless friends to actually do their jobs and provide the public with their own records! You guys are supposed to make things easier for the people! We are not supposed to make your lives better! Karen if doing your job really sucks then our advice is that you quit!
As for Indiana having been ranked the best state in the nation for budget transparency and government administration see our earlier article last month here that shows why anybody who believes that needs to seek help for drug addiction! The overwhelming bipartisian backing for HB 1523 is proof enough that our state legislature is so bad it smells worse than the outhouse outside a White Castle!
This is to our knowledge the first article we have ever read of Ms. Lange's and we must say we are all very impressed with her work. Please contact Ms. Lange and let her know you appreciate her talent! She can be reached at (812) 549-1429. Follow her on Twitter: @kaitlin_lange
The Indianapolis Business Journal also ran an article by the Associated Press which contains some more information on the legislatures blatant attempt to crush the voters.
IBJ's story includes these kernels of knowledge:
The bill requires a "good faith effort" to complete the search within a reasonable amount of time but does not set out who would audit agencies or hold them accountable. State law currently prohibits public agencies from charging a fee to search for, examine or review a record to determine whether it can be disclosed. Opponents say concerned citizens should not have to pay to access public records.
Supporters of the hourly fee argue government agencies can be bogged down by large requests and that compensation would help to alleviate the burden on government resources.
This bill also requires public agencies to provide electronic copies if they are requested and already exist. It does not require the agency to change the format of the public record.
It comes as no surprise that the legislation does not spell out what a "good faith effort" is on the part of government agencies. So that portion of the bill is completely useless! Since state law currently bans public agencies from charging a fee to search for records. Why should it be changed now? The traitorous lawmakers who support this are being less than honest when they say this is to help ease the strain on government resources. Most Indiana lawmakers have had no problem burdening us with the screw-ups of FSSA, the BMV, DWD, and DCS! Speaking of DCS any word on when the tragic death of Tajanay Bailey and DCS's handling of that case will ever be investigated? It's only been about a decade since she died! So don't give us this crap that you guys give a damn about burdening people!
It is time to say enough is enough! We all must contact Governor Holcomb's office and tell him to veto this bill! Contact his office and tell him that if he signs this or any other bill like this one that you will recruit a real republican to challenge him in the primary. And also tell him if that fails that you will vote for whoever the Democrats nominate to oppose him should he run for Governor again!
We will provide below Governor Holcomb's contact information as well as how to get ahold of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government and the ISPJ. Don't just call, email, tweet, or facebook post or message, or send a signing telegram to Governor Holcomb about this! Post, Call, Email, Voicemail, tweet, write him every five minutes! Send so many messages that his email, voicemail, twitter feed, and facebook starts begging you to stop! And then just keep piling on! Don't let up! Our freedom is at stake! Now get to work making some calls our friends!
Governor Eric Holcomb Contact Information:
Governor Eric Holcomb |
Phone:
317-232-4567
Mail:
Office of the Governor
Statehouse
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2797
Email form link for Governor Holcomb:
http://www.in.gov/gov/2752.htm
Indiana Coalition for Open Government:
http://indianacog.org/
Indy Pro Society of Professional Journalists:
http://www.indyprospj.org/
Spread these statements all over the internet!
http://indianacog.org/icog-news/icogs-opposition-hb1523-gov-holcomb-must-veto/
http://www.indyprospj.org/news/2017/4/3/statement-on-senate-bill-1523
http://www.indianaforefront.com/bad-bills-never-die/
Monday, February 20, 2017
Indiana Legislature Seeks to End Access to Public Records
Cook writes:
"The cost to access public records could rise sharply under a bill the Indiana House approved Thursday.
House Bill 1523 would allow state and local governments to charge up to $20 an hour for public record searches. Those fees would apply when government officials spend more than two hours searching for a record requested by journalists or members of the public.
The House voted 62-25 in favor of the measure. It now goes to the Senate.
Lawmakers passed a similar measure in 2015, but then-Gov. Mike Pence vetoed it, saying "the cost of public records should never be a barrier to the public’s right to know."
Her colleague, Rep. Karen Engleman, said that as a former Harrison County auditor, record requests could consume a lot of staff time.
“Some people come in and ask for hours and hours of research to be done,” Engleman said. “We don’t get paid anything for doing that.”
Opponents argued that citizens shouldn’t be required to pay for records created and maintained with their own tax money. They also fear the measure could allow government agencies to charge large fees for information they want to hide.
“I just think as a matter of principle these records belong to the taxpayers. Government records are the people’s records. The employees in whatever level of government are paid for by the taxpayers. They are our employees. They work for us,” said Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington. “To have to come in and pay to get access to your records I just think is not a good principle, not a good policy.”
He cited a case in Florida where a county sheriff’s office charged a newspaper $339,000 for a request seeking emails containing gay slurs. Other counties quoted as little as $37 for the same request.
“I think you’re going to open it up to where people come in that are looking for stuff the government doesn’t want them to see, they’re going to get a really high fee,” Pierce said.
State law currently allows local governments and most state agencies to charge a fee for actual copying costs, but not for the time employees spend gathering records."
As the article notes a bill just like this one did pass in 2015. But in perhaps the only good move that Mike "Pampered" Pence made while he was Governor he vetoed this insane piece of legislation. Gary Welsh and Paul Ogden have both blogged on this their articles can be found here, here, here, and here. This bill is nothing more than politicians attempting to shield themselves from being held accountable by the voters that they are supposed to be the servants of! So that you know who is looking out for you and who is only seeking to protect themselves from we the people. We have provided below the names of the legislators so far that have supported and opposed this bill. If you want to do your best to make a difference contact each and every legislator by phone, email, mail, and fax and tell them you want this bill HB 1523 destroyed! Make them fear you the voter! As promised here are the traitors who have voted for this garbage already also listed are the patriots that voted against this bill:
Judases who have voted for HB 1523:
Authors of this POS:
Rep. Kathy Richardson-RINO, Noblesville. Email: courtney.heiden@iga.in.gov
Rep. Phillip GiaQunita-D, Fort Wayne. Click here to contact him.
Rep. Karen Engleman-RINO, Corydon. Click here to contact her.
Rep. Kevin Mahan-RINO, Hartford City. Click here to contact him.
Other Representatives who voted for HB1523:
Forestal, Dan-D
Goodin, Terry-D
Hamilton, Carey-D
Harris, Earl-D
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Jon Easter's Take on Raising Statewide Officeholders Pay
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Kyle Walker for Indiana GOP Chairman? Is the State Republican Party going to commit suicide?
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Reasons to be thankful
With that we bid you all Godspeed! May the blessings of God be with you all! AMEN!